This video is too fun to pass up. It shows the side of 3D virtual worlds that most Second Life residents do NOT have to deal with. As we move in to using Blender and 3DS Max to build for Second Life™ we start to move into this world.
[youtube LDogpuChe94]
Every so often I see an update on voxel technology. Jo Yardley caught a new update from Euclideon. I first saw a demo of Euclieon tech a year or two ago. At the time it was very impressive. Today the recent announcement of Geoverse is even more impressive.
[youtube Irf-HJ4fBls]
About a month ago I mentioned this tech in relation to Philip Rosedale’s High-Fidelity project. It is supposed to be using the voxel tech Euclideon is developing. (See: High Fidelity News) The comments in this new video about lag may be the reason that Philip’s people think they can build a no lag virtual world.
Geoverse would seem to suggest it is possible.
There is an interesting video about how Oculus VR™ (OVR) is changing the game design paradigms. I came across it in my Facebook browsing. 22 minutes. Nate Mitchell is speaking at GDC 2013 (Game Developers Conference) which ran from March 25 to 29.
[youtube oMmi-jS4OYA]
I’ve written about what I think the user interface problems will be. This video really gets into some of the problems and how people are handling them.
In Second Life we tend to use open source products. But, some people use the professional products from Adobe, Photoshop being the best known. I think it has no equal. There are other image editors. But, Photoshop (PS) is the industry standard. If you plan to work for a gaming or other company that works with images, you have to know PS. But, Adobe is making big changes that will radically affect casual users.
Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe is changing how they deliver their software. Until now they have sold their software in a package with a perpetual license. I can still use an old copy of CS3, CS4, CS5.5, and CS6. (CS = Creative Suite) It isn’t cheap. A new version of PS costs US$800. Updates can be $300 to $400 per version come every 12 to 24 months. People can find PS on Amazon and in stores for $650. But, quite often that is the ‘basic’ version not the ‘Extended’ version.
Daniel Voyager has an article up: Second Life Extensions on Google Chrome.Wow! How neat is that?
Check it out.
If you are wondering what a ‘browser extension’ is, it is a program that runs in your browser. It adds functionality to the Browser. For instance; to check on which of your friends are online you currently have visit the SL web pages, login, and look for friends. An extension does all the work for you. You see a friends list without all the hassle.
Daniel list 3 more extensions you can get.
There is a small downside to extensions. They burn up some CPU cycles and slow your browser down. They are more of a hit at start up when opening the browser then while it is running. When your browser is closed they don’t run. So, it is not a big deal.
If your browser is loaded with search tools bars like My Web Search and other annoying near malware, you need to learn about extensions and remove the annoying crap. Check these removal tutorials for help with; Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.
There is a good article on FastCoLabs: What’s The Big Problem With Developing Oculus Rift VR?
It seems it is not that hard to integrate into a game. Team Fortress 2 has an Oculus Rift interface now. Valve, the owners and operators of Steam, helped create the interface.
Joe Ludwig, one of the Valve programmers behind the Rift implementation, said, “Figuring out how to combine mouse and keyboard input with head tracking was not very well explored territory, so we had to break some new ground there.”
From the New York Times: The Obama administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing a Federal Bureau of Investigation plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet rather than by traditional phone services, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.
…
Albert Gidari Jr., who represents technology companies on law enforcement matters, criticized that proposed procedure. He argued that if the United States started imposing fines on foreign Internet firms, it would encourage other countries, some of which may be looking for political dissidents, to penalize American companies if they refused to turn over users’ information.
“We’ll look a lot more like China than America after this,” Mr. Gidari said.
See the NYT article: U.S. Is Weighing Wide Overhaul of Wiretap Laws
Forbes has an article out today: After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot? The article is an interview with Jacki Morie, a virtual world designer in telehealth care. She has been working with injured returning soldiers.
We see people interested in virtual worlds and 3D imaging in many places. People are finding uses never thought of. There is little consensus as to where it is going, just that it is going.